I say its my first time grow, but ive tried before with epic failures.. heat.. had to move.. ect ect...This time I will get to harvest hopfully. Im either going to grow in my closet, or in a grow-tent. I tried both before and failed, both due to bad ventilation i'm sure. I cannot cut holes in walls/doors.. so I will have to figure out a way to extract the heat. I'm thinking about taking my closet door off and hanging some kind of material or somthing. Not sure though. I think it might be better to just buy a grow-tent that way I have a way to vent out the heat. Ok well after typing this lol I decided I will just buy the tent. So for vegging, I will be using 4-5 Compact floro's from walmart.. It doesnt say the spectrum on the box or bulb so I have no idea.. all I know is that it says its 100 wats but I doubt its that much.... and says its like 1700 lumens per bulb I think. So until I get my HPS system in I will have to stick to the compact floros from walmart. How many do you suggest I get?? So heres my setup (not 100% sure yet though on some things) Seeds Strawberry Cough (feminized) from marijuana-seeds.nl Soil Foxfarm OceanForest (from local hydro shop) Nutes Foxfarm GrowBig, and Foxfarm BigBloom (veg/flower) Im either going to get a 400w coolable hps/mh system. NEW DIGITAL AIR COOLED 400 watt HPS GROW LIGHT 400w w - eBay (item 390054100849 end time Aug-20-09 11:04:10 PDT) Or go T5 for veg/flower 6 Lamp 4' foot T5 GROW LIGHT -SIX MIXED VEG BLOOM BULBS - eBay (item 180194887130 end time Sep-03-09 13:05:29 PDT) I will get this fan for extracting the heat.. NEW 6" Inch INLINE FAN Exhaust cooling Vent Blower Duct - eBay (item 390062795421 end time Aug-28-09 12:11:06 PDT) This tent 64x20x36 GROW TENT hydro cabinet hut room dark box cab - eBay (item 400059630913 end time Sep-01-09 12:05:31 PDT) Here are a few questions I would like answered by experienced growers to ensure my sucess. 1. The tent that I linked is 64x20x36 , do you think that is big enough for 4 plants and a 400w hps system ? I think I want to flower when the plants reach about 15inches... I would like for the plants to finish at about 4 to 4.5 feet tall so I think flowering them at 15 inches is a good idea.. do you ? 2. The fan I linked... is that a powerfull enough fan to keep the heat in that tent with a 400w hps under control? I dont want a heat issue with these plants, I need the temps to stay under 80... I dont want ANY heat issues at all. The fan is 424 CFM & 110 wats. Again.. is this fan powerfull enough and good enough to pull the heat out of the tent keeping the temps under 80?? PS: I will also have a small fan giving air into the tent as well. 3. For fear of giving my plants to many nutes and fucking them up, I think I will feed them nutes every other water feeding... atleast in veg. Is this a smart idea or should I just feed them the reccomended ammount? Does anyone use the Foxfarm growbig/bigbloom products... if so how do you go about using them? 4. I have some starter-plugs, but im not sure how to use them. I mean obvioulsy I know I put the germ'ed seed into the lil hole.. but I mean once I have it in the hole.. do I just leave the plugs out on a plate or somthing.. or do I put the pluts directly and instantly into soil?? 5. How long (generally) does it take for plants to reach 15 inches? Around 2.5 - 3 weeks is my understanding.. am I correct?? Thanks for answering my questions.... ------------------------------------------------------------------ I will be posting pics every update, my seeds are currently germinating in wet papertowels and in a ziplock back in my droor. They should pop by tomorrow. So I will be posting pics of everything starting when I plant the lil girls. I will make this journal as detailed as possible, because I know how bad it sucks to be trying to learn things and some things arent detailed enough to understand. I have read TONS on growing and for the most part know what I am doing, but need some general help obviously.
all 4 seeds have germinated, I will let them germ a bit longer so the tails are a little bit longer I will plant tonight into the starter plugs. Went to home depot yesterday, bought all the wood and pillars I need to make my 3x3x5 growbox. Put it all together last night. It looks awsome, and only cost me 27$ compared to the 200$ I was going to spend on a grow tent i'd say I saved ALOT of money. I just need to cut my exhaust hole and my intake holes today or tomorrow. Also found a 400w MH/HPS light system on craigslist for 120... picking that up today. Decent deal I think. To bad the ballast is connected to the hood... oh well.. Hopfully I dont have issues with heat. Will start posting pics as soon as my girls sprout... Strawberry cough reviews say this strain is amazing.... so hopfully it holds up to what I have read.. I am so stoked to get these plants to flower... never seen anything like that before so it should be awsome. I wish I could fast forward 2 months from now haha. Ok see ya GC'ers... later!
well Ive planted all 4 seeds. 2 went into starter plugs and 2 went into 2-3 gallon pots. I want to see if there is a difference in starting in starter plugs or not... so I have the starter plugs sitting on a plate and the pots next to them. Hopefully they pop quick. Im going to go to home depot and buy some cfl's... I think I will start flowering them after 3 weeks. So I will wait to buy my 400w HPS light. Hopfully they veg nicley under the CFL's... more updates soon. later!
If you have the room to grow, I would let them veg for about a month before flowering. This is usually the point where you start to see the nodes alternate, and thus the plants are mature enough to go into flowering. No need to be on a time-table, let the plant tell you when it is ready. Also...I'm currently growing with T5's from start to finish, and was very impressed with them in the veg stage. I used a 4' 4-bulb system...and they were 15" tall right around 4 weeks...with lots of nodes and very lush. As for the flowering stage...I am impressed, but suspect it could be a bit better...maybe 80% of what an HPS would be. Since you are growing in a closet, think about topping your plants. This will keep the one main stem from out-growing all the other stems, and help evenly distribute bud growth to multiple stems. I did not do this on my first grow, and is probably effecting my yield a bit...as T5's only have about 12" penetration past the canopy. Great for smaller plants, not so good for taller plants (one of mine is approaching 3' right now). I'm currently about 2-3 weeks from harvesting my little ladies. And even though they are bag seed, and I grew them with T5's the whole way, I'm looking to get about 30-50 g's per plant right now. Very happy. Good luck!
im growing in a 3x3x5 grow box.. and ill be flowering with a 400w hps vegging with 4 100w 6500k floros.
end of day 2 since seeds were planted. So it took around 28-30 hours for all 4 seeds to germ... One of the starter plug seeds is poppin out of the starter plug with the seed still on it though.. i can see the other starter plug getting close.. but no sign of the soil seeds yet.. hopfully they will pop out today or tomorrow. Should I water the soil???? and even the starter plugs??? Or should I just leave them alone??? Still trying to figure out what I need to power my MOGUL socket 100Watt Floro.... lol shocked the FUCK outa myself earlier and killed all electricity in my entire room lol... kinda funny. I think if I can figure out how to power the mogul socket 100 watters I will get 2 more and that will be 100 watts per plant, and Ill be good for the next 3-4 weeks. Then Around week 3 I will order my 400w HPS so I can flower with it. As soon as I can buy a USB cable I will upload pics.. later! ps: I think I will let the veg for 30 days before I flower.... ive only got 5 feet total vertical to work with so if I veg at 1 foot I can expect them to get to 4 or 4.5 when they flower
If your plugs and soil are moist i wouldn't water them. Let them be your others will pop out. How deep did you put them in the soil?
I put my seeds in the dirt only about a seeds width. So i guess only like a quarter inch below the surface. It makes it easier for the seedling to pop out, if you put it in too deep it will die before it ever pops out.
Well its day 3 since I planted the seeds. 2 of them have died I belive. One just didnt pop and looked all dead when I dug around a lil to find what the problem was. And one was starting to pop out of the starter plug, but hasnt moved in over 24 hours.... I let the soil get WAY to dry, luckily I saved 2 of the 4 I belive.. one is starting to grow up towards the light (seed still on it) second one is about to pop out of the plug... SO. I put 2 more seeds in the papertowel method last night and they havent shown any signs of popping yet its been about 18 hours... hopfully they pop soon. My grow box is almost complete, I just need to buy some mylar and my 425CFM exhaust fan and thats it. Im hoping to atleast get 3 plants to harvest... I think im going to go CFL all the way, I havent really made a decision yet, but I know I dont want any big issues since this will be my first REAL grow. I think I might just get 2 200watt CFL's 1 6500k and 1 2700k and let them do the work. 400 true wats over 3-4 plants is decent. they are 10,000 lumens total So I would have 20,000 lumens plus Im going to add in some random 5-6 CFLS as well hanging down so I think ill be ok. do you think I shud go 2 X 200watt CFL ? or 400w HPS all the way?
do you think I shud go 2 X 200watt CFL ? or 400w HPS all the way? I have 40,000 lumen of fluoro's on my three plants. This is my first grow, too...but from what I can tell, there is a marked drop-off in bud size at about 15" past the canopy. If you are topping your grow, or LST'ing, fluoros should be ok and give you a strong yield for each plant. I still have at least 3 to 4 weeks left of flowering (just finishing week 6), and my buds are pretty nice. I did not do anything to the plant, as this was my first grow, and wanted to just get to know the life cycle. Just from eyeballing each plant, I'm hoping to get 30g - 50g per plant. I think by doing a little bit to even out the canopy better for all the stalks, would double that yield.
2 of my babies have sprouted and are green as can be.. other 2 I just re-planted 2 new seeds 30 mins ago they are 3 days behind but should pop up in the next day or 2. I went out and got 3 85watt CFL 6500k bulbs they are huge! as well as 8 24 watt CFL's all going into my custom wood grow box 3x3x5 Ill be ordering my exhaust fan tonight or tommorrow.. they are just sitting in my room under the lights now.. they arent in the box yet. They grow so fast... about 2 hours ago one of them still had the seed on the tip but it was still an inch above the ground.. i just checked 30 mins ago and all the leafs are out and the seed is gone.. pretty cool stuff to see how life starts... its awsome. Soil was kind of dry so I watered the sprouts a little bit just enough for a LITTLE drainage... wish me luck! Ill post pics soon.
the 2 new ones i planted havent sprouted yet. Im having a curling problem with one of the sprouts the other one is going strong.
all 4 sprouted 1 looks awsome other 3 look not so good... I belive they are being burned by FF ocean forest I think the nutes are to strong... Hopefully they pull through, will update in about a week with pics.
Day 11 All 4 sprouts are looking healthy, one of them had a pretty bad nute burn but has 100% recovered. They are all on track.
hey, I got 5 Suomi Hemps and 2 Strawberry coughs at about 16days old, You got pics? i'll post some of mine soon be interesting to watch how you do
Oh wow I think i was way off, im only day 13 since I started germination. So I think im on day 11 today..... so ya There not as big as urs.. but I think in a week they will be for sure. They are looking very very healthy, im pleased so far. One of them that got the nute burn the first set of leafs are really burnt they are only half the length of the other ones, but it has fully recovered. and has more growth then the others. On day 20 i'm going to start with 1/4th strength FF grow big. Or do you think I should wait a bit longer? Im thinking about vegging for 35 days or so. I want the plant to be a foot high before I flower..
there is a book called Buds 4 less, It is basically a simple grow journal but has lots of pics. I use it just to compare my growth rate as a rough estimate to his in the PDF-ebook. So ur using a 400w HPS, nice blend, I'm sure you'll get many of chunkers of of it. I'm using A mix of 2700k & 6500k CFL's, gonna keep mine real small, keep one as a mother and make 6 or 7 clones and send pretty much send 'em into flower ASAP, Kind of like how ya see those low-ryder plants Also, I'm using coco/perlite and started 'em a week ago on nutes 1/4 strength, they are all now using 3/4 strength nutes. Peace and good luck, I'll be watching yours eagerly